The Beach: Part 1

I am now remembering why I never got around to blogging our beach trip pictures last year.

By the time I download off my camera, then cull the images, then edit the images, then resize the images, then upload the images to FB, I'm kind of done with the images.

And I get this thought in my head that maybe all my readers are done with them, too. After all, most of my blog readers follow me on FB and/or Instagram and have already been overloaded with a ton of pictures.

Yet, again, I have to remind myself that this blog is not for them. (Sorry!) Its our family's digital scrapbook. I use it all the time to help jog my memory about important times and events. I search for pictures to show Jocelyn what we did and what we have to look forward to this year. That's exactly what I was doing when I realized I had zero blog posts about Pawleys Island in 2013.

As not to make the same mistake again, here are some pictures from our first few days at Pawleys....

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and were stuck inside the condo (which no one but Brian and Jayce, occasionally, admitted to liking) for close to 3 hours due to storms. The kids were super bummed not to hit the beach before dinner like we usually do. Oh, and dinner was a disappointment, too. Our favorite restaurant closed down this past year. We'll miss you Carolina Wing and Rib House!

The kids were up at 7 AM the next morning and we were on the beach by 8:30 AM. That's the earliest I've ever seen Brian get up on vacation :) We stayed down on the sand until 1:30 PM.





After a quick lunch (and no nap for Jocelyn), we headed to the pool.




Jocelyn cracked me up with her version of talking. She needed her "swimsoup" on and wanted "sunscream" to go with her "goggle glasses".


That night we went to the Island Bar and Grill. We eat here every year due to my craving for shrimp quesadillas (this time with added portabello mushrooms!)  but eating there is always more special when my aunt's family is also there AND is the band playing that night.





 Okay, see if you can follow along....

My dad is Lee. He has 3 brothers and a sister. His brother Dave is married to Diane. Aunt Diane just happens to be my favorite aunt of all time. (No offense to any of my other aunts... I just happen to grow up in South Florida with Aunt Diane nearby).


Dave and Diane have three boys: Matthew, Dustin, and Brett. I won't say that they are my favorite cousins since I have about 20 more and really don't want to hurt feelings. Let's just say that I lived near them for the first 11 years of my life and I have a lot of memories playing with them.

Now all of the boys are grown up. Which I guess makes sense since I'm 35 and they aren't that much younger than me. Matt is married to Nicole and they have an adorable toddler named Reed. (Which happens to be our grandmother's maiden name.)

Dustin and Brett aren't quite ready to get married and settle down with kids yet. And that's totally okay. Jocelyn found many activities to play with them as pictures will show later :)

So, moving on...

Aunt Diane has a two sisters and a brother, too. And they were all there. And so were their spouses. And their children. And those children are all grown up and are getting married and having children. So, what used to be a small and quiet family reunion (Who am I kidding? This bunch was never small and quiet!), its now a HUGE family reunion.

I've been honored to be a part of this reunion 4 or 5 times now. So, even if my cousins' cousins aren't technically related to me (or, are they???), we pretend they are anyway.



 Its kind of amazing to me that young and slightly bratty siblings, who may fight all the time, grow up to be great adults with a huge sense of loyalty to their family.

There's hope for my kids yet!

More to come from day two....

Comments

  1. looks like an amazing trip! beautiful photos!! can't wait to see more!! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting!

Popular Posts